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Head Teacher's Blog - Sharon Young

Another extremely busy term, where staff and pupils have worked together to achieve amazing things; from enjoying the snow, as we remained open to pupils during the extreme weather conditions through to achieving various qualifications in English, Maths and ICT. The Summer term ahead will bring more exams and opportunities for work experience placements for our Ks4 learners, as well as Curriculum Week, unit residential trips and the arrival of the Summer grid activities for the rest of the school! The staff team have continually worked hard to provide a range of exciting activities to ensure that all learners who achieve ‘high passes’ will be able to access a variety of engaging activities throughout the school term. In addition, there will be a range of opportunities for Ks4 learners to access additional support, revision and ‘catch up’ sessions to support them in their exams this summer.

For those undertaking exams during the Summer term – this message is for you, from the extremely wise Dr Seuss:

“And will you succeed? Yes you will indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)” Dr Seuss

"In any given moment we have two options - to step forward into growth or to step back into safety"

As I take over the responsibility of the Head's Blog from Mr Mihkelson, I have stopped to think about how we are already two months into the new academic year and I had promised myself that I would try to make a post each month! However, the start of any new academic year is always extremely busy and this year has been no different - our Year 11 cohort have begun a City & Guilds qualification at Scarborough TEC, which will enable them to develop new skills in plastering, carpentry, tiling, brick laying and motor vehicle maintenance through our extended day curriculum. During October, our Year 10 and 11 cohorts will be taking part in their first work experience placement which we hope will begin to shape their future career pathways, supported by further work placements later in the year and '1 to 1' careers interviews with our specialist careers advisor. It can be a challenge to know what you would like to do when you leave school and many of our learners struggle to focus on future goals, so the additional support of the '1 to 1' meetings, independent careers advice and guidance, supported with visits to local employers and colleges has proved to be extremely beneficial to our learners making those difficult decisions.

Although it is still quite a long time in the future, I feel I need to let all involved with Brompton Hall know that I will be retiring from my post of Headteacher of Brompton Hall at the end of this academic year. The governors have been aware for a while, and the process of selecting someone to take over is well underway.

Leaving Brompton Hall has been a very difficult decision to take. I have been Headteacher here since 2001 and have found working here very rewarding. There have, of course, been many changes and many challenges over this period – but the most pleasing part of the work is being part of a team, delivering high quality care and education, that has made a real difference to both the boys who have been here – and their families as well.

I was Headteacher of a similar school in Lincolnshire before I came to Brompton, and a deputy Headteacher as long ago as 1990, which is probably why I feel it is time for me to take things a little more steady. However, I will be very much hoping that over the coming years that Brompton Hall maintains the high quality of the provision, and moves on from strength to strength under new leadership. It is an educational establishment that is appreciated by many, and one that is vitally needed.

As we enter the last week of the Autumn term it is a good time to reflect on how we are doing at school as a whole. Personally it has been another hectic term especially with my additional role of Executive Headteacher at Scarborough Pupil Referral Service. As an aside the service has made massive improvement over the time I have been involved and the Management Committee are delighted that standards have improved and the provision has had an extremely positive report from Her Majesty’s Inspectors. Many more boys and girls are receiving the education they deserve.

Exam season is well underway now with the Y10 and Y11 students sitting exams in school, the Y11s will soon reach their leaving date at the end of the month, following their final work experience placement. It is good to see that we have again ensured that all of the boys have firm placements in further education to move on to for September 2016 – and we all wish them every success in whatever they choose to do in the future.

Our 'new look' termly reports have received positive feedback from parents and carers, who are really pleased to be able to see what their child is doing across the whole school curriculum, including achievements in the unit activities, as well as the classroom.

The start of the summer term is always a good time at Brompton Hall. The clocks have changed and we have long evenings for all the outdoor activities the school have looked forward to over the winter period.

As we draw to the end of another year I am pleased to report that the school continues moving forward in a very positive manner. Excellent teaching, a rich range of activities and a friendly positive atmosphere are the result of all the boys and staff working so effectively together. This only happens through dedication and hard work and I would again like to thank everyone for their splendid efforts throughout the year. It is pleasing to hear such positive comments from everyone who visits the school – nearly all commenting on the friendliness and politeness of the boys they meet.

As you can tell Blog writing is a development that has really got off the ground for me yet. Still I have recently been encouraged to communicate more by this means so I intend to try to keep this section more up to date.

I was looking at this and realised I wasn’t even sure where the word Blog came from – although of course I knew what it was. Looking it up on the internet gave me a first definition of Blog as being: “A character from The Lord of the Rings that ruled the northern goblins for about 150 years and led an army in the battle of the 5 armies!”

I found out that the word Blog is not a word with some other meaning or a combination of words as I suspected, but just a word invented to mean “A regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.” Unfortunately although this is written in conversational style unless I get round to writing more regularly this obviously cannot be defined as a Blog!

It has been quite a while since my last update. I have been waiting for our latest Ofsted report to be published – and although we were inspected at the end of February it has only recently been made available. This inspection was for our residential provision and is done on an annual cycle. We have worked hard to consolidate the good practice the school follow in this area and a great deal of credit needs to go to the whole of the child care team in achieving the best possible outcomes. The school has been judged as outstanding in every area: Outcomes for residential pupils; quality of residential provision and care; residential pupils’ safety; leadership and management of the residential provision and in overall effectiveness. This is confirmation from ofsted of what the boys who attend school and what parents tell us in their feedback to us. It further confirms that a residential placement at the school is a very positive choice for the education of pupils in our sector!

We are approaching the Christmas holiday after a long term with the vast majority of boys making excellent progress. The behaviour point scores have been very impressive every week, and a lot of boys have continued to earn a lot of the reward tokens that we call currics. As usual at this time of year many have also decided to spend some - so don't be surprised when some return home with their prizes. Some have been saving for a long time and have some quite high value rewards. Some have been thinking of others too and have cashed in their currics to buy Christmas presents for family.

In the last week of term we have our Christmas lunch on Tuesday and the school production on Thursday. A letter has been sent out but I would like to remind those planning to come on Thursday that we need to speak to you first to make sure we have enough seats for everyone in the room. Please telephone the units on Monday evening - we hope to say yes to all groups but please understand that sometimes we cannot fit everyone in!

Everyone at Brompton Hall hopes you have a very enjoyable Christmas holiday and a very happy new year!